


Unusual and Strange

by yourrhinestoneeyes



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Cecil and Carlos meeting for the first time, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Slightly not completely human Cecil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-17 01:03:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4646517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/yourrhinestoneeyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos wasn't sure how to feel about Cecil the first time he saw him, he wasn't sure how much he could trust or rely on anybody in Night Vale. Over time it all began to feel more like home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unusual and Strange

At first it had been startling to say the least when Carlos had met Cecil face to face for that first time. He had still been getting used to everything in Night Vale. He had seen many types of oddities amongst the citizens in that first week; he had seen a teenage boy with two heads, a woman with three arms, an older man with shiny green scales, but he hadn’t really encountered anybody like Cecil. He had heard his voice over the airwaves, heard his dulcet tones and the way he said his name with a certain caress to it. It had been unnerving to hear this stranger talk about him in such detail and fawn over him when they hadn’t even really met. Night Vale was unusual though, scientifically ahead of the rest of the Universe, and so very very strange. He knew that and he liked it even though at the same time he was quite scared by it.

So that first time he properly met Cecil it caught him off guard. The face hardly matched the gentle easily excited voice he hard waxing poetry on the radio. 

At first he’d expected some older man worn down by age or even some lanky twenty something year old still in college, but he didn’t expect what he got.

He knew he had to look stupid that first time they stood face to face. He could feel his eyes widening slightly and for a moment his body was paralyzed like he didn’t know just how to react to this, to him. 

Cecil stood there in front of him; he was a good bit taller than Carlos, his skin was almost as dark as his own, he had a slender frame, and long thick black hair done in a braid. No that wasn’t what was unusual, that didn’t come across as potentially malicious; it was the details of his face. It was the fact that from what Carlos could tell Cecil’s eyes were nothing but blackness, bits of light reflected on it like the moon on water. Carlos tried to rationalize that in his head; he told himself it must be an extreme eye trauma, a very severe and unusual eight ball fracture. He knew that couldn’t be right and that didn’t explain his mouth. That didn’t explain the way the corners of his mouth seemed to be long, thin lines carved into his skin like scars. His teeth were dangerously sharp and gnarled, but the voice that came out was the same one from the radio. He still eagerly took hold of Carlos’ hand to shake it, his grip was firm, and his palms were sweaty.

Carlos forced himself to stop staring so intensely, he knew he probably looked like an ass, but he wasn’t too sure that Cecil even noticed or knew just why Carlos was staring at him.

“It’s so neat to finally meet you Carlos.” 

His voice sounded so excited even a bit nervous reminding the scientist of the heavy fixation or crush that the radio host seemed to have towards him. He found himself smiling uneasily; he wasn’t sure how he felt about him or the situation or Cecil’s attraction towards him.

“I-it’s nice to meet you too Cecil.” He found himself saying his voice squeaky and awkward.

He internally cringed at the sound of his own voice, but Cecil didn’t seem to notice or mind.

Over time Carlos found Cecil both reliant and somewhat frustrating. He liked that no matter the question he had about Night Vale Cecil was willing to answer it for him, when Carlos called asking why his kitchen sink was bleeding while the bathroom sink simply had lizards falling from the faucet that Cecil had an explanation for it. The frustration came when Cecil would tell him he should know these things or ask him why he found the blood stone rituals and the burning birds flying through the sky at night so unusual. Carlos knew this was their town that this was normal to them, but it wasn’t his normal. It wasn’t normal to the rest of the world. 

He tried once or twice over the phone to explain it to him, explain that where he came from things weren’t like this.

“So the fridges where you come from don’t turn into stone twice every month?” Cecil asked one night sounding utterly confused.

Carlos found himself laughing, “No Cecil they don’t turn into stone, by the way do you know when my fridge won’t be stone?”

He was getting hungry and the cabinets still had teeth.

“Another week, longer if the food is still good…..Maybe we can go to eat somewhere, maybe Big Rico’s?” Cecil asked hopefully.

The scientist felt himself tense at the question, at the soft hopeful tone in the other man’s voice. 

“I don’t think so Cecil, I’m really busy with the tiny city underneath the bowling alley and….”

“Carlos I thought I told you to leave that alone.”

“I’m so close to discovering something there and there’s so many other things here I’m trying to sort out, I just have a lot to do.”

He knew it was dumb to put out so many excuses and reasons, though he really did want to know why the clocks were full of goo, and why the library was full of terrifying monsters, or why the dog park had hooded figures. In the end despite how hungry he was and how much he really did need out of his apartment he just wasn’t sure how he felt about Cecil. When they talked over the phone it was fine, they were fine, but when they were face to face or when Cecil was going on about his hair and how perfect he was it just reminded him that maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea.

“You really should go out and get something to eat, you don’t have to go with me, but you should eat. I don’t want you getting sick.”

Carlos smiled at the soft worried tone in the other man’s voice. 

“Don’t worry, I will” He assured

 

It wasn’t until that night at Arby’s under the mysterious lights that Carlos finally decided that despite what had happened at the bowling alley, despite the terrifying government, and the secret police; despite all of that that this town wasn’t out to kill him. It wasn’t until he woke up after a near death experience and heard Cecil crying on the radio thinking Carlos dead that he realized the radio host of this strange desert town wouldn’t hurt him.

When they sat there in the parking lot and talked it was nice. He felt bad for causing Cecil to cry, he still looked so distressed when they were sitting together after the events of that night. His black eyes shined reflecting his tears and the mysterious lights that shined above the Arby’s. It was the first time Carlos really saw him.

Over a year later and they lay together in their bed, Carlos lovingly caressed his fingers against Cecil’s cheek and back through his thick black hair. He loved the shimmering black eyes that looked at him and the soft smile on his face. 

“I love you” 

“I love you too Carlos” 

Cecil leaned in kissing him, it felt so pleasant and right to be kissing him. There was something so familiar and comforting for Carlos to trail his fingertips along the black tattoos that swirled along his boyfriend’s arms. Everything that scared him about Night Vale was so familiar to him now, it was his home, their home.


End file.
